A hearing for Brandon Wilson, 20, charged with the November 14 murder of a 9-year-old boy in a public restroom, is to be held in Vista, California. The child was in the park attending a family reunion.

On Saturday, December 19, the Opening of World Jewish Expo '98 is scheduled in New York.

On Sunday, December 20, Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer, begins.

On Monday, December 21, New York-bound Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, ten years ago today, killing all 259 people on board and eleven on the ground.

On Tuesday, December 22, the Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet in Washington to review interest rates.

On Wednesday, December 23, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma is scheduled to begin two days of talks with Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Discussions will likely focus on gas supplies.

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Former U.S. Attorney General William Ramsey Clark is 71.

Actor Ossie Davis is 81.

Actor Ray Liotta is 43.

Movie critic Leonard Maltin is 48.

Basketball player Charles Oakley is 35.

Actor Brad Pitt is 34.

In 1398, the Turkish warrior Timur Lenk conquered Delhi.

In 1737, Antonio Stradivari, the Italian violin-maker, died.

In 1787, New Jersey became the third state in the United States.

In 1863, Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, was born. His assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 sparked the chain of events which ignited World War One.

In 1865, slavery was abolished throughout the United States with the ratification of the 13th amendment.

In 1903, the U.S.-Panama treaty placed the Canal Zone under U.S. control in return for an annual rent.

In 1912, Charles Dawson discovered fossils known as the "Piltdown Man" on Piltdown common in East Sussex, England, and claimed they were the remains of primitive man. It was later discovered to be a hoax.

In 1913, the German statesman and chancellor Willy Brandt was born. The mayor of West Berlin (1957-66), and chancellor of Germany from 1969, he was forced to resign in 1974 following the discovery that an aide was an East German spy. He was also warded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.

In 1916, the 10-month Battle of Verdun ended after huge loss of life -- 543,000 French and 434,000 German troops were killed in the WW I battle.

In 1940, a secret plan issued by Adolf Hitler ordered the German General Staff to prepare for the invasion of Russia under the code name "Operation Barbarossa."

In 1972, Uganda nationalized 41 foreign-owned farms and tea estates, of which 34 were British.

In 1987, Ivan Boesky, the Wall Street financier who played a key role in the biggest insider trading scheme in U.S. history, was jailed for three years.

In 1993, Sam Wanamaker, a U.S. actor and director who campaigned to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe Theater on the River Thames in London, died at 74.